Improved washing-machine



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MORGAN L. GROVER, OF DUPLAINVILLE, WISCONSIN.

IMPROVED WASHING-MACHINE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 37,226, dated December523, 1862.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that l, M. L. GROVER, of Duplainville, in the county ofWaukesha and State of YVisconsin, have invented a new and ImprovedClothes-Washing Machine; and 1 do hereby declare that the following is afull,

clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which-Figure 1 is a side sectional view of my invention, taken in the line a:as, Fig. 2; Fig. 2, a transverse vertical section of the same, taken inthe line 1 9 Fig. 1.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the twofigures.

This invention relates to an improvementin that class of clothes-washingmachines in which a rotating or areciprocating partiallyrotating clothescylinder is employed and fitted within a suitable suds-box.

The invention consists in the employment or use of a cylindricalclothes-receptacle, formed of staves or slats, with open spaces betweenthem to admit the suds, said staves or slats being grooved or fluted attheir inner surfaces, and the clothes receptacle having a rubbersuspended within it, constructed and arranged in a novel way, ashereinafter fully shown and described.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and constructmyinventioinl will proceed to describe it.

A represents a suds-box,which is constructed with two parallel sides, aa, and two inclined end pieces, b b. This suds-box is supported at asuitable height by legs 0 or any proper framing.

B is a cylindrical clothes-receptacle, which is constructed by securingslats or staves a to the periphery of two circular heads, I) I)". Theslats or staves have spaces 0 allowed between them, and the innersurfaces of said slats or staves are fluted or corrugatedlongitudinally, as shown in both figures.

The clothes-receptacle is hung upon journals d d, the bearings of whichare in the upper edges of the side pieces, a a, and one of said journalsis provided with a crank, O. The head I) of the cylinder has twoopenings, 0 6, made in it, both of which are shown in Fig. 1. The otherhead, I), is sohd. The clothes-receptacle is provided with a door, D,

through which the clothes to be washed are placed in and removed fromthe receptacle.

Within the clothes-receptacle B there is suspended a rubber, E. Thisrubber is formed in part of a flat strip of wood, f, provided with ajournal, g, at each end, the bearings of which are within the journals dd of the clothes receptacle, and to the lower edge of f there areattached two straps or pieces of webbing, It h, which pass through aseries of parallel slats, i, and are attached at their lower ends to abar, j, which in its transverse section is in the form of an isoscelestriangle, as shown in Fig. 1. The two opposite sides of the bar j arefluted or corrugated longitudinally, and the slats i are of ellipticalform in their transverse section, as also shown in Fig. 1. The portionof the rubber E below the journals 9 g is heavier than the part f abovesaid journals, and consequently the gravity of the rubber has a tendencyto keep it in a vertical position, as will be fully understood byreferring to Fig. 1.

The operation is as follows: The clothes to be washed are placed inmoderate quantity in the receptacle B, and the suds-box A is suppliedwith warm suds in sufficient quantity to project up about an inch withinthe receptacle B. The latter is then turned slowly, first in onedirection and then in the other, for from three to five minutes. Theyare then removed from the receptacle and wrun g. This operation isrepeated with other clothes until enough are obtained for the secondpart of the process, which is performed by removing the rubber from thereceptacle and placing the clothes previously operated into thereceptacle until the latter is about three quarters full. The suds-boxis then supplied with boiling hot water, and the clothes, if very dirty,may be rubbed with soap. The receptacle B is then turned about fiveminutes and the work is done.

In the first operation or process the rubber E subjects the clothes to acertain degree of rubbing and friction, and prevents the clothes fromrolling up compactly, keeping them in an unfolded or open state, so thatall parts of them will be duly acted upon. During this first operationthe clothes-receptacle is supplied with air through the openings e, butduring the second operation it is preferable to have the openings 6closed, and this is done by placing a semicircular plate, G, on thesuds-box A, which covers the outer side of the and rubber E, constructedand arranged as head babove the suds-box, as shown in Fig. 2. shown andused in connection with the suds- I do not claim arotating orareeiproeating partially-rotating clothes-receptacle, for they have beenpreviously used but I do claim as new and desire to secure by LettersPatent The combination of the clothes-receptacle B box A, for thepurposespecified.

MORGAN L. GROVER.

Witnesses I A. 0001:,

R. B. HAMMOND.

